Dreadlocks, hereinafter locks, are a hairstyle common for afro-textured hair, but others with finer hair may also wear the hairstyle. Locks are matted coils of hair. To matt hair for locks, one stops brushing, combing, or cutting their hair and twist their hair into separate small sections. The more sections one creates the more locks will form. Once a lock is formed, new hair will continue to grow into a tangled pattern. Up close each lock looks like steel wool. The hairs are tangled and woven together so thoroughly that they form one solid mass. As hair continue to grow, locks become more and more interwoven until permanent.
Because locks vary greatly in size, width, shape, length, and texture, people with long locks have a hard time finding nice fashionable caps that fit comfortably and cover the entire head without damaging the hair. Thick long locks substantially increase the volume about the wearer's head when gathered into a ponytail or worn freely at ear or neck length.
Common caps for locks include, but are not limited to, large crochet tams, beanies, wool knitted tams, and large adjustable baseball caps with rear apertures and a closing. These caps are informal looking and not very chic when wearing a nice suit of clothing. Also, for people with long thick locks, baseball caps and fine caps, such as newsboy and ivy caps, derbies, and such, are ill fitting, uncomfortable, and do not cover the entire head of locks.
People often resort to cutting holes in baseball caps to make headroom for their locks. They use cap stretchers to increase the circumference of the cap band. The most widely known size adjuster for casual caps is a pair of plastic straps. Casual caps use snaps located at the ends of a semicircular aperture forming a gap at the back. The straps are attached at opposite ends of the gap. A first strap has a plurality of holes, and a second strap has a plurality of snaps designed to engage the holes of the first strap. The cap with the snap closings typically accommodates cap sizes from about 6½″ to about 8″.
Another type of adjustment is a Velcro hook and loop fastener. A first strap having a patch of Velcro loop fasteners is attached to one end of the gap, and a second strap having a patch of corresponding Velcro hook fasteners is attached to the opposite end of the gap.
Caps having either the Velcro hook and loop or the snap closing have similar disadvantages for long dreadlocks. These caps do not preserve a person's locks by limiting pressure at friction points that cut and damage locks. The lining materials for these caps are abrasive and are bad for maintaining healthy locks. The apertures for these caps do not naturally gather locks to reduce pulling and cutting of matted hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,850 to Han concerns an improved fit cap having an elastic sweat band to fit wearers within a predetermined range of cap sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,540 to Cho concerns a free-size cap fitting a range of head sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. D632875 to Bischel concerns a pony tail gathering ball cap. This cap is made of traditional fabrics used to make balls caps that pull, tug, and damage afro-textured dreadlocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,494 to Garnire and Bradley concerns headwear with a closeable hair opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,814,573 to Greenburg concerns a self-sizing ball cap with diverse head band segments.
U.S. Pat. No. D517,781 to Ortley and Kuhtz concerns a cap.
U.S. Pat. No. D424,282 to Crumpton et. al. concerns a cap to accommodate a ponytail.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,334 to Griffith and Griffith concerns a baseball cap for pigtail hair styles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,027 to Mack concerns a method of selecting a commercial clothing pattern that discloses the shape and use of a basic bodice block.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2008/0034475 to Boord concerns a baseball cap and cover.
The listed references do not provide a cap for people with afro-textured dreadlocks needing a fine cap, where the cap covers the entire head and gathers long locks without damaging them. Therefore, there is a need for a bespoke cap having two distinct fabric patterns layered to cover an entire head of dreadlocks, closing straps associated with top panels from a second layer, and an adjustable rear aperture cinched at a unique angle to gather the dreadlocks to lie naturally when worn.